16,1 De los Angeles and Villegas: Synophthalmia 103 
Mall has advocated the theory of insufficient nutrition. He 
maintains that monstrosity may be due to the imperfect de- 
velopment of some ova on account of inadequate nutrition, owing 
to faulty implantation in a diseased uterus. This theory is ap- 
plicable only to pathological embryos aborted during the first 
two months of pregnancy, for it is inconceivable that an ovum 
suffering from lack of nutrition can reach the full or nearly 
full term. 
Stockard, after performing a series of experiments on the 
effects of magnesium salts and alcohol on the ova of certain 
fish, suggested the hypothesis that cyclopia in man may possibly 
be due to an excess of magnesium salts in the blood of the 
mother, or to alcoholism of either or both of the parents. This 
theory is objected to on the ground that it is true to a negligible 
percentage only, for many alcoholics bring forth normal off- 
spring without any mark or defect; as regards the excess of 
magnesium salts in the blood, excess of other chemicals brings 
about similar results. What part this alcoholic theory has 
played in our present case we cannot tell for lack of information 
regarding the habits of the parents and the history of the 
family. 
As to the question of pathogenesis of this particular kind of 
monstrosity, Stockard attributes the downward displacement of 
the mouth to the circumstance that the cyclopean eye, being 
frontally located, has caused the mouth to move downward. The 
interpretation seems insufficient, in view of the fact that Werber 
in his experiments has observed this condition to occur, not only 
in cyclopean monsters, but also in some cases of asymmetric 
monophthalmia and synophthalmia such as we have in the 
present case. 
Investigators on this subject claim that abnormalities of the 
olfactory pits are almost invariably found to occur in embryos 
exhibiting various degrees of median cyclopia as well as asym- 
metric monophthalmia, and that they usually correspond to the 
anomalies of the eyes of a given embryo ; that is, they are either 
blended into one median pit or they exhibit various degrees of 
approximation or fusion in the cyclopean embryos. 
Stockard in explaining the cause of cyclopia has advanced the 
hypothesis that there is only one optic anlage, which normally 
divides into two, but that by the influence of certain chemicals 
the division fails and a single eye results. This is refuted on 
the ground that it lacks sufficient proof to back it up. 
Some authors allege that the production of a single eye is due 
